


Killing Me

by deukaenology (Deukaenology)



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: A lot of angst I guess?, Angst, Blood and Injury, F/F, Gun Violence, Rose_Blue_MV_Inspired, Swearing, Swordfighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deukaenology/pseuds/deukaenology
Summary: Was it long? Waiting for me, I mean.You've been through a lot, haven't you?I'm sorry. For not being here sooner. For not being with you, when you needed me the most.But I'm here now... I'm here...I love you.I love you.I love you.I'm sorry.Let me make it up for you. Let me save you.By killing me.
Relationships: Kim Bora | SuA/Kim Minji | JiU
Comments: 10
Kudos: 35





	1. Kim Bora

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there,
> 
> It's not my first fanfic I've ever written, but it's the first time I try writing in English. Actually, this is an English version of my own fanfic in Vietnamese, and since English is not my mother tongue, I would have to ask you to kindly overlook my grammar mistakes :"> This fanfic was inspired by R.o.S.E Blue MV, so of course, angst would be awaiting for you at the end, and HanDong wouldn't be mentioned *crying out loud*, but yeah, I do hope you guys enjoy reading this fic anyway ^^

In the very first time Bora met MinJi, they fought. Fiercely, mercilessly, with the result was neither of them was able to gain the final victory against each other.

Ok, Bora admitted, she would have been killed, if that woman, for some reasons only God knew what, hadn’t decided to missed Bora’s head with the last bullet. Yeah, she couldn’t be wrong. That woman missed. Purposely. Even though she was the one who fucked up her whole territory and businesses all on her own. Even though she was the one who was brave enough to declare a war against her. Even though she was the one who challenged her into a fight first.

Bora had no reason to run away from such a fight. Before achieving her only goal, she wouldn’t allow anyone to challenge her power in an insolent manner. So, she fought against her. As that bitch wished.

Katana vs gun. Steel vs steel. And that woman missed. _Purposely_ -missed.

Bora was angry. But she couldn’t hold that anger for long.

She didn’t think anyone could, especially when facing such a scene. Where the surrounding faded, with MinJi’s face was the only focal point. Her smooth and soft purple hair flipped in the air. Her beautiful face unrealistically shined in the dark. Straight nose, curved lips. With a pair of brown eyes sparkled, thanks to a curtain of mist and tears.

And suddenly, Bora realised that while her arm was swinging her blade, her brain was busy analysing whatever emotions hidden deep down in those eyes. Just for one second. One second was all she needed. There was something in them…

What was that?

Anger? Definitely not. Misery? Probably.

…

Pain?

…

Yes.

…

How about… Familiar?

…

…

A lot.

But Bora couldn’t remember her. She didn’t know who this woman was. The only thing she knew was that when they first met, this stupid thing pumping in her chest, the thing supposed to be dead from a long time ago suddenly throbbed. Stung even. Strongly enough to make her restrain the pain, so her hand could wield Shibien, her beloved pitch-black Katana, and fought. A quiet slash echoed through her brains, and her eyes caught it. A familiar redness altogether with the metallic smell, and the white chemise covering that woman slim body became a mere background glorifying the beauty of blood.

Crimson. Sickly sweet. Arousing. Or supposedly arousing, as it should be, under normal circumstances.

But it wasn’t.

Bora’s heart stung. Again. Her lips tightened, quivered from restrainedness.

MinJi was dodging her skillful blade magnificently. Volted while shooting at an amazing speed, with an astonishing precision. Those ricocheting bullets surprised Bora, who was rarely surprised at anything after years of fighting experience, at how much she was struggling just to identify those bullets’ trajectory.

So of course, it wasn’t easy to approach MinJi without being shot through her head.

Yeah. It wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t impossible, either.

Among the rain of bullets, Bora successfully advanced toward her. Wasn’t close enough to slice her body into two, but would definitely leave an ugly scar on that beautiful, smooth as porcelain skin partly exposed in front of her eyes while wielding the blade.

Another ‘slash’, Shibien in her hand sliced through MinJi’s shoulder. Mercilessly. Even though MinJi was able to step back. Again.

Bora’s stomach twisted. Again.

And that wasn’t the only pain she was holding. There were some times MinJi’s bullets hit her, too. After not just two or three times, but five times bouncing off all kinds of surfaces, with similar strength, if she had to compare, to a straight shot.

There was no specific trajectory. It was near impossible to recognise the bullet direction.

And she was pissed off. Every single time MinJi missed. Not because she was able to dodge the bullet. Not because she didn’t know where the bullet was gonna hit, no. She was angry, solely because she knew that MinJi _could_ predict exactly where her bullets were gonna hit.

MinJi didn’t fight to her fullest. MinJi could kill her, easily, but she didn’t.

And…

Deep down inside, Bora wanted to take those bullets. The physical pain, at least, could help her forgot these stupid feelings. Her twisted stomach. Her throbbing chest. And her aching heart. She wouldn’t be able to continue fighting with all the sore on her muscles, all the tension pressured her lungs, and these unexplainable emotions playing with her mind and determination.

But every time she got hit, MinJi’s eyes were… what was that? Regret?

Bora clenched her teeth. Regret my ass, you son of a bitch.

She hated hypocrites like that. Shibien in her hand continued tackling. Horizontally, vertically, diagonally. Her reckless steps. Her heavy breathing. All contributed to her over powerful, but lack of precision attacks.

And despite all that, MinJi was hit by her blade countless times. Accidentally? Purposely? Bora couldn’t tell. It wasn’t easy to tell especially when her vision had become blood red. A familiar scene when she got overwhelmed by her rage, which was too often that she had stopped thinking about it for a very long time.

Bora’s body was covered in bullet holes. MinJi’s body was not better than hers. Not too much.

Bora’s leather jacket hid her sweat and blood stain pretty well. MinJi’s white chemise was drowned in her sweat and blood.

She looked deeply into her eyes, and she knew.

Their stamina had reached its limit. The next attack would be the final attack.

Bora had to use her most powerful Iai.

MinJi had to shoot her final bullet.

Calmly sheathed her Shibien, Bora inhaled deeply, tried to focus. Her surrounding started to fade. Her heart was pounding, strongly, rapidly, as if it wanted her to stop. Lactic acid in her muscles rose against her will. Nothing supported her decision of wielding the last attack. But Bora didn’t care.

She opened her eyes right at the time MinJi charged forward.

And she was ready.

The blade whetted against the sheath, increased both her strength and her speed. Perfect angle. Perfect force. Screwed the physical wounds. Fuck the pain had been tearing her chest apart. Shibien in Bora’s hand had sliced into MinJi’s body, straight from the right hip to her left shoulder.

And MinJi, with a light curve in the corner of her lips, which painted out a miserable smile, missed.

The bullet hit her left shoulder. Bora wasn’t even left-handed, for God’s sake. It was just enough to knock her down, not even close to put her life under threat.

Damn it.

Bora and MinJi fell at the same time.

While Bora was looking at her, eyes blood-red, MinJi just kept that fucking smile on her beautiful face. Such a familiar smile, which made Bora wanted to swear again.

Because of that smile? Or because of her own feeling when seeing it?

That… Bora couldn’t be sure. She couldn’t get it. She didn’t understand MinJi. She didn’t even understand her very own emotions.

“So… what exactly do you want, Bora?”

MinJi weakly asked, pressed an arm against her wound to stop the bleeding.

She didn’t understand what MinJi wanted to ask. She wasn’t even sure if it was intended or unintended, but her question still hit her. Hard. Like a bell in her head sudden rang after a long time being broken. Forced her to look back. Woke her up from her worst nightmare.

There was something she wanted to find. There was something she wanted so badly, that made her run away from her childhood house full of laughers and happiness. There was something she desired, burnt her inside out with needs, threw her into the underworld with never-ending drug trafficking, sins, fights, but also, a gold mines of information to obtain what she’d been wishing for.

But then… What was it? Why did she have to find it? Why did she want it so badly? What did she need it for?

And why… Why couldn’t she remember any of it?

Even the faces of five other people she used to dream of every night?

“To be at the top like this… How empty is it? How lonely can you be?”

Bora didn’t say anything. Her cauldron of anger started to boil once again. Empty? Lonely? Who the fuck is she to ask her that question? And why the hell did she bring that up now? To stop her from falling deeply into the mud? To wash her hand from the blood she had spared? To show her another way to come back?

Too late.

Inhaled deeply, Bora chuckled, arm swinged to check how bad her wound might be. Broken bones, torn muscles, and that fucking bullet head might still be somewhere in her body. Not suitable to wield Shibien, of course, but still movable. And to be honest, Bora didn’t give a fuck.

Shibien needed blood. She needed to see some more blood of the bitch kneeling in front of her right now. Screwed the fact of how familiar she was to her. Screwed the fact of how her scent, although mixed up with blood and sweat, still embraced her, assured her, softly, and addictively. Screwed the fact that all those words, shitty but fucking correct, that scared the hell out of her, drowned her into a pool of fear, panic, lost, and loneliness.

She would kill Kim MinJi. She swore to God. Today, she would definitely send this arrogant bitch back to the arm of Mother Earth, back to where she came from.

But… Her teary eyes stopped her.

“You… You don’t remember, do you?”

Her sweet voice was full of bitterness and sorrows. Her elegant eyebrows frowned, and a single tear rolled on her blood-stained cheek.

So beautiful. And so hurtful. Literally, when the back of Bora’s head just painfully throbbed.

Remember? It was true, she didn’t remember, but…

What must she remember?

And Bora let her guard down.

With a surprisingly fast movements, MinJi got up to her feet, loaded bullets into her gun, and pulled the trigger. In only two seconds, no more. A loud ‘crank’ echoed, the bullet had hit where it should be hitting: Shibien’s guard, with a strong enough force to made it flew out of Bora’s weakened grip.

“I can’t let you kill me now, Bora.”

Her shivering voice quivered her chest. _But why?_

“I’ll see you next time.” MinJi showed her killing eye-smile. “When it comes, let’s fight again, shall we?”

Bora was dumbfounded. That smile… _So familiar._

“I’m MinJi. Kim MinJi.”

She left. With her disheveled purple hair slightly flew, and her graceful scent easily swept away the sickly smell of blood. Leaving nothing but a reminder that quickly and deeply absorbed into her long-droughted heart.

“And please, forget me not, Bora…”

MinJi’s slim back was the last thing Bora’s eyes caught before passing out.


	2. Kim MinJi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, I'm back ^^ Thank you all for giving my work a chance, and thank you for all the kudos left! Great motivation to make me move my ass to continue the story :"> Another reminder of hoping you guys will forgive my grammar and vocab mistakes, since I don't really have someone to be my proof reader :'( Enjoy the next one, not too long, but I promised the last chapter won't be as short as the first 2 ^^

Although these wounds were in a pretty bad shape, MinJi didn’t have a lot of trouble getting out of here. Bora was the leader. She was left behind, unconscious. Defeated, so to speak. Her gang should, and in fact, had prioritised taking her to a safe hideout rather than chasing after the woman who started this fight in the first place.

Ha…

Dropped her body on an old moldy sofa, MinJi grimaced, arm pressed harder on the most severe wound spreading across her front, straight from hip to shoulder, lips couldn’t hold back a small groan quickly vanishing into thin air.

Bora’s sword fighting skills had tremendously improved. As far as MinJi could remember, there had always been hesitation, and sometimes, fear too, in the way she fought. Softly, and unwillingly. Very well hidden. Very difficult to notice. But they definitely were there.

And now…

MinJi’s mind trailed back to the way Bora’s blade reaching her body. Fiercely. Ruthlessly. No signs of neither fear nor hesitation.

She… must have been through a lot, mustn’t she? Even though this wasn’t reality, she must have suffered a lot…

MinJi closed her eyes. The icy coldness and loneliness in Bora’s raging eyes swept over her brain, washed away every single string of thoughts daring to stand in its way, and left nothing behind but a dead mess of pain and emptiness. Right, MinJi strictly reminded herself. That woman was only a mere illusion having Bora’s appearance, and speaking in Bora’s voice.

She was the leader of the underworld. She was the head of an organisation successfully sneaking its legs under the city’s skin. She had in hand all source of information could pose a great threat to whoever dared opposed against. By intimidating, terrorising, even killing, with no hesitation, no compassion, no remorse, and probably, or surely, with an absolute calmness in her beautiful brown eyes.

She wasn’t _that_ Kim Bora. The girl in a flower-patterned dress, the girl cheerfully wandered on that dandelion field, the girl who had been so pure and kind, who easily got blushed by MinJi’s teases, was no longer exist.

Her gang would take care of her. Despite having so many enemies, the number of people who didn’t benefit from Bora’s death was still greater. She would be ok. As long as MinJi left, she knew Bora would be ok.

Logically, she didn’t have to worry about it. There was no reason to, after all.

Emotionally… She worried.

She didn’t want to leave Bora behind.

Yet she did.

A self-mocking chuckle escaped from her chest. So eventually, even though she got in here, lying in an abandon, old and moldy house, with a dilapidated roof under the rain, she couldn’t hide away from her fate. Could never have a chance to follow her heart. Had to grit her teeth and accept to be a useless pawn. Completely helpless. Knew nothing about control, nothing about freedom, and being free together with Bora was only a dream she knew too well that would never be able to be achieved.

And Bora…

An unswallowable lump suddenly appeared in MinJi’s throat.

Just like GaHyeon, YooHyeon, YuBin, and SiYeon.

Bora had forgotten. Everything. MinJi’s smile. MinJi’s face. The memories they had had together.

All gone.

The tears on the edge of her eyes could no longer be held.

These wounds were seriously severe, weren’t they?

Put aside her emotions, of course they were no joke. Her brains had been constantly receiving pains rhyming with her heartbeat. The distinctive smell of blood. Felt like footsteps of Death himself. And that voice. That thin voice, reminded her of a snake whistle, slithering in every corner of her brain, had been haunting her since forever, now came back.

_“You… What are you most feared of?”_

MinJi had gave it a thought. Actually, a lot of thought, to be precise. About what the voice had asked when her soul was sucked into that purple crystal thing, right before she could get to where GaHyeon was trapped. About whether the voice had asked the other the same thing. About what she had prepared to barter, after nearly losing her very own life, in exchange for those awaken bullets in real life.

_“Then again… who could overcome their fear, I wonder?”_ The voice continued. _“Definitely not the weaklings, apparently. Do they deserve to leave? That, I’m not so sure of. Maybe they’ll be happier living in this dream and fears, rather than standing up and fight back, don’t you think?”_

MinJi had grunted in disagreement.

No one could be happy with it. That was just a dream world. A nightmare. An illusion labeled as reality. An easily collapsed image could never be anyone’s pillar of hope. No true happiness could be relied on such thing. Not to mention that it was impossible for her to imagine YuBin, GaHyeon, YooHyeon, SiYeon, and especially Bora, to give up, or run away without putting up a fight.

However, in the instance she faced GaHyeon, MinJi knew she was wrong. Seriously wrong.

Her friend was forced to live in a different dimension, and a different timeline. She had no one to lean on. She had no one to protect.

No one was there to lend her some strength to fight.

GaHyeon had forgotten. She broke down. Drowned in her own fear. Became apathetic. Became ignorant. Wear a beautiful, yet fake smile underneath those soulless eyes. The eyes reminded MinJi of a dead fish, and did not suit her in every possible way.

Suddenly, she became someone else. Definitely not the GaHyeon MinJi’s used to know since they were little.

And the others were in the same state.

YooHyeon, cruel, ruthless, crushed everything standing in her way to achieve her ambitions, with no mercy, by every possible mean, while deep down inside, desperately tried to satisfy everyone’s expectation.

YuBin, rich, prideful, egotistic, arrogant, with pure loneliness deeply carved in her eyes after being able to stand on top.

SiYeon, being ignored, being isolated, concealed herself in her own world, ran away from all the pains she was forced to suffer from for so long, that the eyes in MinJi’s memories, the eyes sparkling with dreams and hope now vanished. Crushed. Dull. Lost. Leaving nothing but emptiness inside.

And MinJi realised one thing they had in common.

The four of them… They had no one left.

They had forgotten her, that was a fact, but again, where had she been when they needed her the most?

MinJi could pity herself for being forgotten, but who was gonna pity them? For whatever the hell they had been suffering from in this fucking nightmare?

Reluctantly, MinJi raised her gun.

GaHyeon, like she already figured out MinJi’s hesitation, raised her hand toward her. Dead eyes, fake smile. She didn’t believe MinJi would shoot.

And she was damn right.

At first, MinJi couldn’t pull the trigger. She felt like she would never be able to, just like GaHyeon predicted. Her finger froze on the tiny metal piece. Air escaped from her lungs. It took all of her effort just to keep her body from shaking like a leave.

And yet, the image struck her. Hard. The prospect of her precious friend holding this internal pain forever. They had no one left.

They only had her.

MinJi was their only hope. And MinJi understood it well.

GaHyeon’s familiar, yet strange face became blurry. Air came back to her lungs. Her finger started to shake, but at least, it was able to _move_.

And pulling the trigger was not as hard as she thought it would be.

Even though… It broke her chest into pieces.

Even though… it torn her heart apart.

_“What are you most feared of?”_

MinJi knew the answer at the same time her bullet hit GaHyeon’s forehead. She died. In her hand, in front of her eyes. Forever.

The only reassurance MinJi could cling onto was the thought that this GaHyeon wasn’t the GaHyeon she used to know. As long as this GaHyeon died, _her_ GaHyeon would be back. To reality. To her old talented, kind, and pure self, just like MinJi remembered.

And then… She met YooHyeon. YuBin. SiYeon. Woke them up, by killing them all.

That was the only way. To bring them back to the real world. So they could be together. So they could have somebody to lean on, and stop suffering from loneliness during tough time ahead.

MinJi didn’t just know. She got it. She was the only one who could do it. She did what she had to do. And she knew too well that none of this was reality.

And yet…

The way their bodies collapsed in front of her eyes. The disgusting smell of blood. The sticky feeling on her hand. The warmth on her cheek. The pain stabbing straight through her heart. Why did it feel so _real_?

And why couldn’t she stop crying, no matter how much she wanted to?

Luckily, she was transferred to another dimension shortly after pulling the trigger.

Luckily, she didn’t even have enough time to either mourn for their deaths, or drown herself in guilt. Which effectively saved her from breaking down like she could, and should have.

And luckily, Bora was trapped in the last dimension she was sent to.

After that fight, MinJi knew too well that she could kill her. Not effortlessly, no, but it wouldn’t be too hard either. It was just… she didn’t want to. Not yet.

She remembered well. She only had a few minutes to capture the images of GaHyeon, YooHyeon, YuBin, and SiYeon before being sent to her next destination. A few heartbreaking, but still precious minutes, if MinJi had to admit.

She had wished for those minutes to last forever. Another silly wish would never be granted. And… A few minutes? With Bora? She couldn’t even consider it enough.

She didn’t want just a few minutes with Bora. What she wanted was a whole life with her ahead.

Her gaze aimlessly wandered around the room, before dropping on it. The awaken gun, with light from the number one constantly beeping since SiYeon’s death. This was the last bullet. After pulling the trigger, what would happen to her remained a mystery she wasn’t too eager to experience.

But she knew two things for sure.

She would have no one left.

And she wouldn’t be able to see her again.

Would she?

Then why not prolong it a little bit?

There was no one else for her to save. Procrastinating couldn’t hurt anyone, could it?

MinJi’s hand now rested on her forehead. Her wounds seemed to be a little less stingy. Just a little. Enough to allow her brain to think about what shouldn’t be thought. Something like before meeting Bora, she had carried tons of imaginations of how she would react. And how she couldn’t help but wondering…

Was there any chance for Bora to remember who she was?

Because… if it was Bora… Would she be able to remember MinJi, and especially, what they had had together? Those tight hugs, those soft kisses imprinted so deeply into both her brain and body, those memories shouldn’t be forgotten that easily, should they?

MinJi knew she shouldn’t hope for the impossible. MinJi understood she shouldn’t put all her bet on a possibility that would never come true. But when facing Bora…

Her self-reminders vanished. She realised that she had raised her hope a little bit too high. And what happened next, what she was suffering from, the too-realistic pain from her throbbing wounds, the nauseating metallic smell of blood, all were a hard slap cruelly stamping on her fragile and naïve dream.

Bora had forgotten. Truly. And totally.

MinJi laughed.

Laughed out tears.

The silent air was slowly filled with her cry. Muffled. Bitter.

And agonised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, one more chapter, and we're at the end of the fic. There will be more fighting scenes in the last one, so stay tune for it ;) And of course, since I'm the normal person, kudos and comments are always appreciated ^^


	3. Final battle

MinJi was anything but nice and kind.

Two months of staying put and healing all these wounds gave her enough time to make up her mind. A final decision after a relatively long time of pondering. She wanted to save Bora, no doubt about it, but she didn’t want to do it now. Not just because she wanted to avoid the unavoidable, but mostly because of something much more important than that.

A small ‘swish’ cut through the air, and MinJi had no trouble dodging her opponent’s bullet. What was her name again? Well, MinJi didn’t remember. Not that it mattered though. She would forget the name as soon as it reached her brain cells anyway.

She only knew that this lady, desperately trying to fight her now, was Bora’s right-hand man. Or woman, to be exact. And that was more than enough.

“You bitch!”

She shouted, her bland face reddened, which MinJi wasn’t sure if the reason being was because of intense fighting, or just pure anger. Or it could be both.

And MinJi frowned.

If it was physical worn out, that wouldn’t be a problem, but if it was anger rooted from self-helplessness…

Such a weakling. How could this woman be capable of protecting Bora in this dangerous underworld in all these years?

Actually, she didn’t have to be angry. After that intense fight, she had met Bora a few more times, in several occasions. Of course, it wasn’t easy to lure her out to the front. She had to make a few nasty messes in her managed territory. Not the first time she did it though. The only difference from her last time making fun of them was the number of men being beaten up. Which had been much greater, MinJi dared to claim.

And the only reason they had been kept alive was to send her message back to Bora. Taunting. Cocky. Triggering. Probably, or hopefully, could piss her off enough, and she might come out to confront her one more time.

Most of the time, she failed. Bora hadn’t come, because, well, what were her hundreds of loyal men there for? They were useless, MinJi wouldn’t deny it, but still…

And there were a handful-counted times that she _could_ meet her in person. Long enough for MinJi to realise that Bora never truly relied on anyone. Complete independence, a complete trust on no one but herself. It seemed to give her more freedom, more power, more control, and make her appear to be less vulnerable somehow.

So, technically, her wing-woman being weak shouldn’t trigger MinJi’s annoyance, should it?

Her brows knitted into a straight line.

Bending knees, MinJi launched herself forward to close the gap, silently, effortlessly, and before her opponent could realise, her foot had smashed on the poor girl’s diaphragm. Hard. Enough to send her fly across the room like a ragged doll. She was still able to move, but clearly, unable to get up on her feet, not to mention to keep on fighting.

MinJi restrained a sigh. Ok, she admitted, she was a little excessive. Kind of. It was just… difficult. To control herself. Or to be precise, to control her irritation, when it came to anything related to Bora.

Speaking of it…

She looked at her opponent, heavily huffing, clearly struggling to stand up, body visibly shaking from blood loss, obviously spending every effort she had just to be able to face her with a straight back. Which she had miserably failed, and MinJi didn’t really care even for one bit. She had something else more important in her mind, such as…

Will Bora come? This time?

A quiet ‘pops’ reached her ear. Her opponent had fired another shot, but it didn’t matter. MinJi didn’t even need to move to dodge. The woman’s breath and rhythm were disruptive. Her organs might have been a big mess. Her vision was covered in blood and sweat. It was a miracle for her to be able to endure the gun recoil and to pull the trigger, so at least, her effort had gained her some of MinJi’s respect and admire.

But that was it.

MinJi looked at her with calculating eyes before glancing to her back. About thirty men were lying behind, painful groans and moans occasionally filled the quiet air, not too much, and never too loud. Most of them had been knocked out, and even if they didn’t die yet…

Through the window glass, her gaze reached those big containers standing outside. She mentally counted.

Three. Two. One.

A loud ‘bang’ blasted, and the aftershock caused by that hell of an explosion sent tremors straight to the floor under her feet. The show was quite shocking, especially to her opponent. She was literally staring at it, eyes slowly became blank, shoulders dropped in total defeat. It was clear that her last string of fighting will was burnt into ash with the drugs and weapons out there. And MinJi knew she had won.

The gap in terms of strength was too obvious. This result was something everyone should be expecting in the beginning.

“Kill me.”

The kneeling woman weakly demand, and all MinJi did was looking at her with an expressionless face. She could do that. Easily even. But what for? The feeling of blood on her hand, hot, sticky, sickly, what was so good about it to get her hand dirty again?

Four times. She didn’t intend to stain her hand with blood more than five times. Even though she understood that these people would be killed when they returned to Bora, emptyhanded. This transaction was extremely important. Bora would never let any of them alive. That was the punishment for anyone who dare to fail at tasks considered most unallowable-to-fail like this.

“Why don’t you do it?” Mustered all the strength she had left, the woman shouted in frustration. “You seriously think there’ll be someone stupid enough to buy in your fucking fake compassion? Just kill me! Now!”

MinJi remained silent. There was a huge misunderstanding here. She was rational enough to hold zero compassion toward someone existing only in a virtual world. But she didn’t feel the need to explain herself either. It was just…

She leisurely walked toward her, and…

A quick and precise hand chop landed on the poor woman’s nape, and she couldn’t utter another word. At least not for a while, and that was good enough. MinJi wasn’t keen on explaining. She wasn’t keen on unnecessary conversation, too. She was only keen on plans going on a right track. So she bent down, carried the lifeless body on her shoulder like carrying a shack of meat, and left a message before leaving. Lazily, and slowly. She was not in a hurry. No need to rush anyway.

There were things taking time. To understand. To realise. And to remember.

And MinJi would bet everything she had into that glimpse she’d caught on from the last time they faced each other.

Would she win the bet? Or would she lose it all?

She would find out soon enough.

\------------------------------------------------

Bora’s headache returned. It had been her unpleasant accompany for a while, so frequent that it could be considered a normal event, bringing along the never-ending rages that she was too familiar with. And despite that familiarity, she noticed that this headache had been coming to her much more frequently than usual.

Since the day she lost to that woman.

Maybe the headache just came from her talent. Bora hated it, but she had to admit, that purple-head was annoyingly good. Transactions and trafficking were total failures. Drugs and weapons were completely destroyed. Cash-flow was stopped. Business partners and investors, either pressured her to clean them up, or threatened to sell all their shares to her enemies to stay out of this mess. Her temporary underworld partners had reluctantly stopped dealing with her organisation. Some of the other smaller gangs started to rebel against her, and even though it was not a big deal handling those weaklings, it was still a pain in her ass, and was able to annoy the hell out of her.

All thanks to that woman with an irritatingly beautiful name. Kim MinJi. Alone.

And to make Bora’s problems even shittier, that thing was nowhere to be found. Well, that wasn’t too precise, if she had to be fair. There were rumours here and there, but that was it. Couldn’t even satisfy her to the least. The last thing she needed was some stupid bluffs coming from stupid attention seekers, greedy shitheads, and cowards knowing nothing but running and begging for all their pathetic lives.

But that wasn’t the worst, no.

The worst thing was that dream. Of the grass field. Of that five blurry shadows. Of sunshine, smiles, and laughers. So peaceful. Full of happiness.

And so fucking unreal.

That repetitive dream had been waking her up in the middle of the night, with a snotty nose and tear-stained cheeks, so regularly that she gave up counting all those nights she didn’t sleep. Didn’t want to. Or couldn’t, even if she ever wanted. She also gave up on analysing the root of the problem, too. It didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t think it would make a difference anyway.

And lacking of sleep only allowed her anger to appear more often. Which did nothing to lift her spirit up even one bit.

“SuA-ssi…”

JoongHo nervously called. His leader’s mood had been… moody recently. Quieter and more cruel than usual, harder to read, and therefore, harder to predict how nasty things could turn into. If it was possible, facing her in such a state would never be his priority, but… There were situations he must report. He loved his live enough to not even try hiding anything from her.

“About EunBi being caught… What should we do now?”

Bora lowered her eyes while remaining silent. She couldn’t answer his question. Not yet. She hadn’t decided what she would do at this stage. Afterall, she only knew that this was nothing but another challenge letter, another provocation of fight. From that purple-head, directly sent to her.

Obviously, Kim MinJi knew exactly what she wanted and needed.

How about her? Did she know what she wanted and needed?

Bora glanced at him; mind unintentionally wandered to somewhere else. And her hippocampus suddenly flashed out an image. That five shadows. Again.

“Any news about it?”

JoongHo was caught by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to change to subject that abruptly. To be honest, he didn’t understand why his leader was so concern, obsessed even, with something like that, especially in this time, when she had quite a number of serious problems waiting to be eliminated. But he didn’t dare to disobey her. He still remembered how MinKyung’s throat had been slit when the poor guy had questioned her decision. Just one second after Shibien’d been drawn. And to escape from a woman who had defeated a gang of thirty men, as easily as she’d just strolled in a park? Impossible. For him at least.

So, it took him about two seconds to get rid of all his doubts, and think of a proper answer.

“One of my men did tell me that he saw it in her hand once… But it was really fast. _She_ was fast. He wasn’t too sure. He didn’t want to cause another ruckus or spread some false rumours either, so…”

A small hum came out of Bora’s throat, and that was the only sound she made after receiving such an unsatisfied answer. No one could blame her for remaining silent though. She needed to calculate her next move carefully. Even more carefully now. And it took time. Long enough to make JoongHo uneasy. His finger slightly twitched in impatience, but she didn’t care.

She couldn’t afford to be reckless this time.

Kim MinJi knew what she wanted.

“Where EunBi was captured… Is there anything else?”

Her question surprised JoongHo even more, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. Normally, she wouldn’t meddle in those petty problems. Her right-hands should be able to handle them to prove their worth, and if they couldn’t… Well, who needed those useless weaklings by her side then?

Not Bora, definitely.

So yeah. She understood why he was dumbfounded. But he overcame that type of emotion pretty fast. And one thing she really liked about JoongHo was, despite being doubtful and lost, he never questioned what he was asked to do, no matter how unreasonable it could be.

“A bloody coordinate.” Her eyebrows furrowed, and he quickly explained. “I mean, literally, it was written in EunBi’s blood, or so it seems…”

Bora curtly nodded. Invitation message received. She could easily imagine that woman’s face when sending it to her, as if she was standing right in front of her eyes. With sparkling eyes, taunting smiles, and dazzling lips. All the façade made up to hide the misery rooted deeply in her heart.

Shit.

As MinJi patiently waited, Bora finally made up her mind.

“Got it.” She simply gave out an order. “Send me the coordinate, and leave EunBi to me.”

JoongHo was clearly startled. Again. But again, he didn’t ask, even though there might be hundreds of questions running through his head right now.

“Understood, SuA-ssi.” He took an elegant bow before her. “If you’ll excuse me…”

She gave him another nod, and watched him disappearing behind her office’s thick wooden door. The uneasiness when someone entering her comfort zone had vanished like it never existed. Her gaze now landed on Shibien. Her beloved weapon. Her only reliable friend.

At last.

She finally knew what she wanted.

The small and familiar sheathing sound sliced through the dead hush covering her entire room. She carefully observed her pitch-black blade. The neutral colour had effectively covered for the blood staining on before it was cleaned. But it couldn’t hide the blood thirst of her sword itself. So strong, as if it could suck her enemies’ souls, and trap them inside the blade. So peculiar, and Bora, its acknowledged owner, was the only person on Earth could control that unexplainable blood thirst.

Soon, she mentally assured, hand gently caressed the trembling blade.

“Calm down, Shibien.”

The blade stayed still.

“I know. It was delicious, wasn’t it?”

A slight shiver from it. A quiet agreement, she knew.

“You’ll have more. But you have to be patient.”

Her calculating eyes reached Shibien’s point.

Yes.

This time, she would kill Kim MinJi for good.

\-------------------------------------------

“You came.”

MinJi smiled. She wasn’t sure what made Bora come this time. She also told herself more than a thousand times that this woman was not the Bora she used to know. And despite all that, her heart still decided to leap to her throat at the same moment her eyes captured Bora’s familiar face.

What a loyal heart she had.

Well, that didn’t really matter though. It wasn’t something new anyway. And the reason for Bora’s visit mattered even less. She could be here because of her wing-woman. She could be here because MinJi had crossed the line. Or it could be both. Whatever the case, MinJi was sure that she had caused enough damages to deeply imprint her current image into Bora’s stubborn mind. She just wasn’t sure what impression she had left, but anyway…

Hate was fine. Hatred… Even better. She didn’t expect anything more than that. She didn’t even dare to hope that Bora would finally remember who she had been.

She just wanted Bora to remember the current her. To stop looking at her with those distant, and if not emotionless, wrathful eyes. And in order to accomplish just that, MinJi could, and would do anything and everything.

“Where’s EunBi?”

The small woman’s stony question forced MinJi to muster all efforts she had to keep this carefree smile on her lips. She didn’t expect her care for someone else to disappoint her this much. Enough to make her stomach churn, and her chest hurt in a pretty bad way, if she had to admit out loud.

“Defeat me first, Bora. Then I’ll tell you what you need.”

Bora dangerously squinted her eyes. The sound of metal friction trilled when she slowly drew Shibien out of its sheath. Despite its owner’s calmness, the lethal weapon didn’t seem to be that patient. That buzzing sound like an angry bee swarm let MinJi know that the Katana had been waiting for this moment for a really long time.

The moment for its pitch-black blade could have a chance to bathe in her blood.

But MinJi’s eyes didn’t give it a second look. Bora was more attractive in every possible way, even though she still held those stony and cold expression on her face. It was so hard, MinJi had to admit, to take her eyes off her. Small but strong. Beautifully dangerous, with shoulder length hair, fierce eyes, a thin silver chain spread from ear to ear, red lipstick, black leather jacket, and a sword in hand, ready to fight in any moment. An unavoidable eye magnet. A typical femme fatale. 

Therefore, MinJi couldn’t miss that glance Bora threw at her hip. Where the awaken gun, which she had hesitated to bring along from time to time, seemed to be heavier in the holster hanging on her belt.

_“Maybe they’ll be happier living in this dream and fears, rather than standing up and fight back, don’t you think?”_

Now she understood what that voice had implied on. Reality was so cruel, and dreams were such a tempting place to hide away. The thought of staying here, assisting Bora to achieve whatever she wanted was definitely one of it. GaHyeon, YooHyeon, YuBin, and SiYeon were saved. Even if this place was no real, even if this was not the real world where they had grown up together, so what?

She had Bora by her side, didn’t she?

But…

The corner of MinJi’s lips slightly lifted. The weight of the gun on her hip, and the weight of the gun on her hand too seemed to be drown by her will and determination.

If she hadn’t seen it in Bora, or if Bora hadn’t come today, she would have given up.

The two ifs that had never happened. Too bad.

“It’s your choice then.” Bora coldly smirked. “Don’t blame me.”

MinJi knew the talking was done. Bora’s knees bended, and in the next second, her small frame quickly charged forward, effortlessly close the gap between MinJi and herself, her hand wielded Shibien, painted out a magnificent, yet lethal curve. Which could have killed MinJi in an instant, if she hadn’t been able to step back, or hesitated for a fraction of second.

Pulled the trigger, her wrist immediately felt the familiar sensation coming from her gun recoiling in hand. The metal piece spat out a 7.62 bullet, heading to Bora’s leg. Straight. So of course, she had no difficult in deflecting it with her skillful sword.

“Be serious, Kim MinJi.”

She threw her a warning glare, pupils started to redden. MinJi couldn’t miss the spark of rage waiting to burn in those eyes.

But MinJi didn’t care much. Her mind was focusing on something else. Like the distance she was forced to maintain to keep her head remain on her neck. Only five meters, no more. Enough for her to react to Bora’s attack, but too far away from embracing her in arm.

An uncrossable five meters.

And Bora, standing in the other side of that five meters, seemed unreachable too.

“Enough with greetings and warm-ups.” She pointed Shibien toward MinJi. “Or do you want to be serious after being killed?”

The purple-hair’s chest suddenly trembled.

“Why do you want to kill me so much?”

MinJi couldn’t hold that big question any longer. It was so hard, to both confront the woman she had been loving for so long, and holding into a fake ray of hope. Even the answer might be something she didn’t want to hear, but something was better than nothing.

And yet…

MinJi blinked. Did Bora’s reddened eyes just flicker?

But she didn’t have time to confirm, because instead of answering her, Bora chose to continue this battle. Her reaction wasn’t enough to sweep MinJi’s smile away from her lips though. And the purple-hair kept smiling, before…

Hastily ducking, right after sensing Bora’s presence, somehow, had silently sneaked to her back, hand threw out a powerful slash against her, unexpected, and it was so fucking close.

Heart crazily pounded, MinJi briefly glanced behind, eyes couldn’t hide a string of surprise mixed with disbelief. A few strands of her purple hair were cut off, now loosely fell on the dirty floor.

What the…

This speed, this strength… They were completely different from the last time they fought. Didn’t she thoroughly understand Bora’s ability from that last fight already? Then why…

Shit.

Everything had a price, and the price for a second of hesitation was something MinJi wasn’t willing to pay. She had lost her initiation, and she couldn’t do anything about it. Shibien’s blade was chopped down with a brute force, directly aiming at her forehead, and she didn’t have time to step back. This angle wasn’t suitable for deflecting it, either. Normally, a direct block wasn’t her favourite move, but it seemed like she had no other choice.

So, MinJi raised the metal piece in hand up, attempted to use the body of her gun to hold off the blade.

And that predictable move was all Bora had been waiting for. Her wrist slightly twitched, and the sword that was supposed to vertically cut down, now turned into a horizontal slash. The sound of metal sliced through human flesh echoed, and MinJi’s brain immediately received the familiar pain can only be caused by that pitch-black Katana, and the distinctive smell of her very own blood.

Quickly stepped back, she continuously blinked, eyes fixed on Bora in a total disbelief.

In the first time they fought, it was true that MinJi had intentionally took all Bora’s attacks. But what happened just now…

The last attack had sent a _real_ shiver to her spine. If she hadn’t been able to dodge, her body could have been sliced into two. Not to mention… How the hell did she do that? To swerve the blade so abruptly, while chopping down with such enormous power? To be able to launch an attack, so neatly and decisively that even MinJi couldn’t see it coming?

Could it be… she was not the only one who hadn’t given her all in the last time they’d met?

“I’ve warned you, haven’t I?”

Lifted up her sword, Bora’s tongue stuck out, coldly but gently caress the bloody blade. A few strings of MinJi blood left some small stains on the corner of her lips, and that breath-taking image forced MinJi to suppress her shiver. Now she understood. Bora, no, SuA, truly deserved to have what she had in hand today. Power, status, influence. A worthy leader of the underworld. A true goddess of war, who had taken countless lives of anyone daring to disobey her, or worst, to confront her with violence and fists.

An actual Death in bone and flesh, one strike equaled to one dead man.

“The next one…” Shibien’s point was aimed straightly at MinJi’s neck. “Is gonna be your head.”

Didn’t wait for the purple-head to react, Bora had approached her by astonishing resilience and lightning speed, and MinJi had to jump backward with her teeth tightly clenched. Damn it. Her leg strength seemed to be no near to Bora’s. She had to shoot three bullets to maintain distance. Of course, Bora had no trouble in deflecting those simple defending moves, but what truly surprised her was…

MinJi’s neck stung in a sudden.

One fraction of second of hesitation, or one-millimeter deeper wound, and her artery could have been undoubtedly slit.

Shibien… Bora… Damn it.

Her blood started to boil thanks to the increasing Adrenaline flowing through it. But with her initiation gone, she could only rely on body reflex after years and years of training and battling to be able to ward off Bora’s powerful attacks. Fighting against a close-ranged veteran like her wasn’t a smart choice, if MinJi had to admit. Guns were designed to fight in mid or long-ranged battles. And guns had undeniable drawbacks. It took her at least two seconds to reload and aim. Two seconds might be trivial against someone that was considerably weaker than her, but two seconds against a warrior like Bora could mean live and death.

And Bora had took advantages of MinJi’s fighting style to the fullest. Constantly closing the gap. Maximum velocity. Defending with fierce offenses. Giving her absolutely no time to prepare for a counterattack.

MinJi might run out of bullets, but Bora’s Shibien could only be stopped on its owner’s will. And Bora, clearly, had both excessive strengths to wield the blade, and no intention to stop until MinJi’s body dropped dead on the floor.

A neat ‘clank’, and she’d sliced the bullet MinJi shot at her feet into two.

Oh God… She needed to win, but… How was she gonna do it now?

MinJi’s arm had just sent another painful sensation to her brain. Passive defense seemed like a terrible option, and she didn’t want to die before accomplishing what she needed to do. So instead of retreating to maintain the distance like she had been doing for quite a while, MinJi actively stepped forward. In Bora’s surprise, she swung her gun toward Shibien’s guard, and used the metal chunk to press the sword down on the floor. The move wasn’t as effective as she had expected, but at least, the black blade’s point had stabbed through, and was now locked pretty firmly in the floor tiles.

Which gave her about two seconds to realise that her whole body was covered in blood.

But before she could protest or process her thoughts thoroughly, MinJi was caught off guard. Wasn’t faltered by her unexpected attack, Bora’s free hand had reached out, aimed directly to her hip with a swift and unmistakably stealing movement. And she would have succeeded if MinJi hadn’t reacted fast enough.

“You…”

Didn’t let her to finish what she wanted to say, Bora dropped her beloved sword without notice, causing MinJi to lose her balance due to the momentum of her own strength. Struggled to stand still, the purple-head had left her back widely opened, and of course, her opponent didn’t let this chance slip under her finger. A loud ‘thud’ and pain from the back reached her brain, and the next thing MinJi realised was her whole body had received a kick strong enough to send her fly across the room, and landed on some old pieces of broken furniture in the corner. She couldn’t hold back a painful groan while trying to inhale some more oxygen into her suffocated lungs. Damn it.

“Give up already.” Bora admonished her again. “I know you’re strong, but you’re in no condition to beat me now. And you’re still not strong enough to do so, when I get _this_ serious.”

Blinked her eyes to regain vision, MinJi gritted her teeth, tried to suppress the shakiness affecting her body to stand up straight. Bora was right. Her old wounds from the previous battle hadn’t been taken care of properly. She had been too rush for her comeback. And now she had to pay the price.

Not to mention that last time, Bora had underestimated her. Like she said, she hadn’t been serious. But not today. Focused, careful, and calm. Fighting this Bora in her normal health condition would be hard enough.

But MinJi just grinned. Quickly reloaded, she wiped some blood out of her eyes, gaze fixed on the string of surprise on Bora’s face, gently asked.

“You might be right, but who said I need to beat you, Bora?”

Two loud bangs came after MinJi’s gun spat out two bullets nearly at the same time. But they didn’t head toward Bora. Their target was different places. Tiles, walls, metal staircases. Those targets definitely weren’t the final target, and there was no secret in how she was able to control the bullet trajectory. She just needed to aim at a precise angle for those normal bullets to ricochet from different types of surfaces. It was far from effective to kill, but good enough to corner, capture, and restrain her opponents.

And those were all she needed.

Normally, her ricocheting bullets would confuse her opponents. It couldn’t help anyway. It had taken MinJi three years of practice to fully control those bullets. It certainly would confuse anyone in the first confrontation. Or even the second one. She was confident with her skill like that.

That might be the reason why Bora seemed confused with a deep frown, but somehow, something felt off. And MinJi knew what was off right at the moment Bora’s confusion faded away, replaced by an incredible focus. When she sidestepped her ricocheting bullets, effortlessly, effectively, with no extravagant movement. Clean footwork. Smooth and neat dodges. Unbelievable body control. These were the type of reactions that could came only from someone had knew where those bullets would hit at. And as a result, her bullets always missed Bora. Only a few millimeters away, but MinJi knew they couldn’t touch her again no matter how accurate she aimed for.

It had been just three months. What she had to spent three years to perfect was completely overcome by Bora in mere three months. What a genius. A genius who shouldn’t be faltered by her bullets. Not anymore.

Perhaps her confusion was coming from MinJi’s strange question. It was weird, she understood, but she wasn’t lying though.

“If you think I’m still the old person in the past.” The corner of her lips rose, painted out a mocking smirk. “Then you’re dead wrong.”

The purple-head didn’t deny it. It was clear that Bora had improved in an unexpected speed, and she was no near to underestimating such a person in terms of combat skills. Believe it or not, she even accepted that maybe her bullets would never scratch even an inch of Bora’s skin ever again.

But she kept shooting. They all missed, but that was just fine. She had reasons to continue firing, but defeating Bora wasn’t one of them anyway. In this scenario, she had no choice but to shoot, and carefully observe. So, of course, she was able to notice Bora’s muscles had tensed up. Just like a top predator, waiting for the right moment to strike.

MinJi, too, was also waiting for it.

And…

Now!

Her beautiful brown eyes ignited a spark, and MinJi had to pull out every efforts and attentions to endure her aggressive attacks. She observed Bora’s smallest movements while revising moves to counter hers. Shoot. Step back. Tilt to the left. Shoot. Now dodge. This bullet should miss by three centimeters. Raise the gun. Now kick. Ignore that numb wrist. Two steps to the right. Duck. Now shoot. This one should miss by two centimeters.

Steel vs steel. Gun vs Katana. And MinJi was too concentrated to care about the number of increasing wounds on her own body. She couldn’t spare even a small thought to such petty worries.

One meter three. Eighty centimeters.

A little more.

Forty centimeters. Now sixty-three. No shit. Shoot. Stop shaking, will you? Now fourteen centimeters. Thank God.

Hang in there. Just a little more.

And…

Shibien in Bora’s hand threw out a horizontal slash. But this time, it missed.

Wasn’t thanks to MinJi’s ability to dodge, though.

Her shaky legs had disobeyed her brain’s orders to stand up. She wasn’t even sure if her brain could function well enough with this dizziness swamping all over the place. Her hand couldn’t hold the gun firmly no matter how much strength she had used. She was too concentrated to realise her vision had slowly been blurrier. Her chemise was drowned in her own blood.

The consequences of terrible blood loss, ironically, had saved her from being slaughtered alive.

But that was it.

She couldn’t endure any longer. If Bora threw out one more strike, then that would be it.

To MinJi’s surprise, Bora didn’t.

“So… That’s all you’ve got?”

The smaller woman leisurely walked toward her, her curved lips forming an emotionless smirk. Shibien was slowly lifted, until its blade was able to touch the thin skin on MinJi’s neck, and send a sharply cold to her brain. The kind of cold could only be found from demon swords. Like this can’t-wait-to-slit-your-throat pitch-black Katana.

MinJi tried to lift her head up, and looked straight into Bora’s eyes, searched. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Some ray of mercy? Not really. Or the familiar brownish in these pupils? Maybe.

Or…

Maybe she was just looking for her own image reflecting in those beautiful brown eyes.

And she smiled.

“Yeah, that’s all I’ve got…”

Genuinely. Purely. And satisfied.

“But you know what, Bora?”

The smaller girl halted; eyes flashed a temporary puzzled look. MinJi couldn’t confirm, but she might know the reason for her one-second hesitation just now.

“I won.”

The purple-head forced her useless arm to raise her gun one last time, index finger pulled the trigger twice, and fired the last two bullets. Bora was caught in a total surprise. In this situation, where the gap between the two of them was less than one meter, there was no reason to use the ricocheting bullets. And there was even less reason for MinJi to miss in such a short distance. But yet…

MinJi’s bullets weren’t heading to Bora. _Of course,_ they weren’t. Their targets was somewhere else: the two switches activating the trap MinJi had set up in the beginning. A small ‘clang’ rung in the air, and they immediately spat out a rain of carbon fiber chains, aiming at only one spot.

The spot where Bora was standing right on.

To her dismay, she hastily turned her head around as soon as the clanking sound reached her eardrums, but it was too late. MinJi knew how fast Bora could be, but she also understood that, her initial velocity was not her maximum, and it took time for her to reach it, too. Therefore, in order to capture her alive, MinJi had to catch her all of a sudden, by a strong enough barrel capable of shooting out chains faster than Bora’s initial velocity.

She only had one chance, in a matter of one second. No time for a second shot. No recovery for any failures. At all. And…

Bora was caught, and MinJi could see that she was no where near to panic. Her right wrist twitched, and Shibien was spun around, an admirable effort to escape from these chains. But the purple-head wasn’t worried to the least, and she had reason for that. First, carbon fibers were one of the most resistant material on Earth, and it didn’t matter whether here, in this dream world, or in the real world. And second…

Bora had reacted as exact as what MinJi had expected.

So…

Another ‘clang’ ringing through her brain, the pitch-black blade was blocked by her gun’s barrel. MinJi didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, and watched the sword flying out of Bora’s grip once again. It couldn’t help anyway. Her grip couldn’t withstand the direct strength from MinJi’s bullet, especially in the situation where she was distracted to handle those uncuttable chains.

In three seconds, and here she was. Kneeling in front of her. Chained up in those carbon fibers. Struggling in desperation to escape.

MinJi heavily panted. She fell on her knees in agony. Her body was covered in blood, sweat, and wounds. But at least she’d won. Not a fair fight, unfortunately, but she didn’t care that much. The gun in her hand fell off, but she cared even less.

It was time to put an end to her cowardice.

MinJi raised her head up. Her eyes met Bora’s. Yes, it was true, she was more than happy to stay here forever, as long as she had her by her side, but…

The pain and the loneliness hidden deeply in Bora’s eyes were something she couldn’t stand looking at. After all this year, this place, this _dream_ , this fucking illusion could bring her nothing but troubles, lies, wraths, sorrows, and solitude.

Some of which… were brought to her by MinJi herself.

So MinJi must be the one to bring her back.

“You… Let me go!”

The chains, affected by Bora’s struggles, caused a series of clanking sounds. Angrily? Furiously?

Absolutely not.

Surprisingly, she couldn’t find any wrath in Bora this time, even though it had succeeded in controlling her in all these years. No wrath. No frustration. No anger. Not anymore.

So good…

MinJi’s heart was beating so fast. Like its last effort after sensing the Death’s footsteps reaching close by. But maybe, no, seriously, she really must thank the Goddess of Luck just for this time.

“I told you to let me go, Kim MinJi! Do you hear that?”

For allowing her to live.

“Let me go, you son of a bitch!” Bora hopelessly pulled the chains on her wrists, hard enough to redden her skin. “Don’t you dare!”

Long enough, to save Bora from this nightmare.

“You…” MinJi’s wounded hands reached out, touching Bora’s face. “You’ve remembered, haven’t you?”

“I don’t!” Bora clamoured, but her crystal-clear brown eyes were covered in a curtain of mist and tears. “Don’t you fucking dare, Kim MinJi! Let go of me, now!”

What MinJi could do now, was uttering out a weak laugh.

“After all these years, and you’re still a terrible liar…”

MinJi drew the awaken gun out. Held it firmly in her hand. Never let it slipped out of her grip like her gun had.

“No! Let me go!” Bora’s eyes were a mixture of helplessness, despair, and panic. Her reddened wrists were now bleeding. “I don’t _know_ you! Don’t you dare moving! Don’t come closer! Stop!”

But MinJi didn’t obey. She knew too well now. All of this emotion had nothing to do with Bora's fear of being killed. Not.at.all.

“You came… Not because of that woman. Not because of me messing up with your business, am I right?”

“Shut up!”

MinJi gently revealed the hints, patiently crawled toward Bora.

“You followed the rumour I spread. You came, because of this.”

She patted the awaken gun’s body, where the number one was still flickering. The object Bora had tried to steal from her a few minutes ago. And that wasn’t a question. It was a confirmation Bora would never be able to deny.

“Shut up! Stop moving!”

But MinJi was there. Right in front of Bora’s eyes. Facing the face that had been carved so deep in her mind and heart. The beautiful face of the girl who had thrown herself into the cruel and corrupted world of never-ending combats, fights, and sins, who had been forced to let wraths swallow her own self, in order to survive.

Just to save MinJi in their reality.

“You want it, so you can go save the four of them by yourself.”

The clanking sound of chains sudden felt so helpless.

“You want to kill me, because you, too, want to save me so much, right?”

Bora’s silence was the best answer. MinJi wasn’t too sure of what was in Bora’s eyes right now. There was simply too much. Her intense emotions were swirling inside these familiar pupils. But that was fine.

“And you know what…” MinJi’s lip corner lifted up, hand gently stroke Bora’s cheek skin. “Your eyes are brown again…”

Her finger suddenly felt hot. And wet, too. The storm of Bora’s emotion, which was torturing her with self-blaming, with rages and pains after all these years, in form of droplets. And MinJi, finally, was able to be here to catch it.

“They’re not red… Not distant anymore… It’s all good…”

MinJi softly kissed those eyes, and tasted it. The salty bitterness of self-blaming when Bora remembered who she was.

MinJi hadn’t been there for Bora when she needed her the most. But now, she was here.

The pains pressuring her heart, the resentment of guilts, Bora wouldn't have to withstand them alone anymore. MinJi would shoulder them now. All of them.

“Don’t… Please, don’t, MinJi…”

Bora’s soft voice muffed. The hurtful sound made MinJi’s chest throb, but she could endure it. The image of Bora being chained up, helplessly, painfully stabbed right through MinJi’s heart, but that was ok. Everything would be ok.

As soon as she shot the final awaken bullet.

And she would. No more hesitations. No more runaways. She would save Bora, and free her from this goddamn dream. And she had to be hurried, before dying of blood loss.

But… Just a little more…

“Shhh… It’s okay…”

So she could bid her one last goodbye.

She could do that, couldn’t she?

Her vision was getting blurrier, but she tried her best to focus on Bora. On her shoulder-length hair, soft and smooth. On her breath-takingly beautiful face. On her teary eyes carrying only MinJi’s reflection. She must imprint them deeply in her heart.

“Just listen to me, Bora… I’m afraid… I can’t hold on any longer…”

And the smaller girl, although still pulling the chains on her wrists with clenched teeth, had agreed to remain silent, and listen to her.

“I’m sorry. For being late.”

MinJi rested her forehead on Bora’s, softly mumbled. One last time.

“I’m sorry. For forcing you to remember who I am. Although I know that it would hurt you. A lot…”

MinJi leaned toward Bora, tried to pull her small frame closer for an embrace. So soft. So warm. One last time.

“But I… It’s just… I just can’t stand it. That you’ve forgotten me, and maybe will never remember me ever again…”

MinJi ignored her own teary eyes, the smile on her face consisted of satisfaction, guilt, sorrow, and maybe, regret.

_I wish we had more time…_

_I’m sorry._

_I’m sorry._

_I’m sorry._

“MinJi…”

Pulled the chains in hopelessness, Bora could only impetrate. Weakly, which might not make any differences in any way she could think of. Her teeth had torn the skin on the corner of her mouth apart. The sickly smell of blood invaded her brain, but she couldn’t spare them even a small thought.

“None of this is your fault. Please… I’m begging you, please don’t… There has to be another way… Don’t shoot. Don’t leave me, please, MinJi, I…”

Bora’s plea was stopped by MinJi’s lips. Soft. Warm. Wet. Metallic. A bittersweet sensation no one could ever forget.

_“… love you…”_

“I’m sorry.”

MinJi gently whispered between a short rest.

“I love you.”

And pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Yeah. This is the end. I guess it was pretty predictable, but I tried to make it more interesting with fighting scenes and characters' emotion. Just ranting a little bit more about the title of this fic. 
> 
> To be honest, I suck at naming, and yeah, title wasn't so far away from it LOL. I did think of something like Save me or Killing you, but then, it felt weird. I mean, Killing me wasn't that far away from the other two, but... =)) I don't know. The summary was basically MinJi's thought, so I was thinking maybe adding her thought into the title could work. And boom, Killing Me was born (and yes, I was humming Killing Me of iKON while writing it down).
> 
> So... why Killing Me, while whom MinJi killed was Bora? It's quite cheesy to be honest. Well, it's like, MinJi's heart actually died along with Bora's death. Yeah, I did think that Bora didn't actually died in reality. Neither did MinJi. But death, to me, just meant separation. MinJi knew it's gonna hurt, but still, she did it. Killing herself, to save her love one(s).
> 
> And I guess not so many people noticed when Bora remembered. It wasn't until the fight. She went to kill MinJi for a sole purpose of saving her as well ;) So yeah, she was awoken a longgggg time ago before that final fight started ;) 
> 
> One last thing. I didn't put major characters death tag because, well, as much of an excuse as it sounded, I think nobody really died in this fic, so... Sorry if you felt tricked or so...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and hopefully, when I'm not too lazy, I might translate another SuAYeon fic that I wrote, or write a complete different piece for my beloved SingJi :"> I'll see you lovely cuties then ;)


End file.
